We can’t sue the government for spying

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a watchdog group dedicated to defending individual rights online has admitted that there is nothing it can do to stop government spying.

Corynne McSherry, the EFF’s Intellectual Property Director said that recent operations mounted by the NSA and its agents were impossible to stop in a court of law. The recent method of man in the middle attacks might break company trademarks or logos, but since it was not related to the actual purchase of any goods and services it is harder to get a conviction.

She added that government entities, which have walls of protection from lawsuits that don’t apply to private people. Even if a company initiated a copyright claim, government entities are often protected from liability under the doctrine of sovereign immunity, McSherry added.

It looks like there is nothing that the human rights groups can do to get the NSA to stop what it is doing. The only real hope appears to be political pressure and getting the public angry.